Network-based rsi/prach parameter planning and neighbor creation

ABSTRACT

A system uses signals received from actual user equipment (UE) to build in real time a reception pattern for base stations in a cellular communication system. Each UE is assigned a unique tone to broadcast so that a controller can analyze radio coverage by analyzing which base stations received signals from each UE in a coverage area. Cellular base stations necessarily have overlapping coverage and are assigned unique channel access values to avoid repeating values from overlapping cell sites. As overlaps change in real time, in response to live events, traffic jams, site outages, and new sites, signals received from UEs in the coverage area provide a real time view of system coverage. This allows better allocation of channel access values than prior art historical performance indicators using base station and controller call errors.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/841,166, filed on Apr. 6, 2020, whose disclosure is incorporated byreference in its entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description that may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure.

In a cellular system, user equipment (cellular phones, loT devices,etc.) contacts an individual cell site using a preamble (RSI) over aphysical random access channel (PRACH). The RSI is picked at random bythe user equipment using a selection of RSI values associated with thesite in conjunction with other parameters. Engineers assign the RSIvalues based on an analysis of multiple historical connection data andfailure data for collected at both the current site and nearby sites.These assignments are static and maintained intact until it is decidedby system engineers to update the RSI parameters for one or more cellsites.

SUMMARY

An architecture involving both user equipment, sites, and nodecontrollers (e.g., eNodeB) uses unique signals (or tones) broadcast froma plurality of user devices (UEs). Each cell site receives the uniquetones from all in-range UEs and records not only the reception of thesignal but also the signal strength for each. This real-time data maythen be used to calculate RSI values for each cell site according tocurrent conditions as opposed to the prior art scenario that uses onlyhistorical data for the creation of static RSI values.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures depict a preferred embodiment for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art may readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 1 is a simplified and exemplary block diagram of a cellularcommunication system in accordance with the current disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a first environment for thecellular communication system of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a simplified and exemplary block diagram of a base station inaccordance with the current disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a simplified and exemplary block diagram of a user equipmentdevice (UE) in accordance with the current disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method operating a cellular communicationsystem;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a first operating environment forthe cellular communication system of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a second operating environmentfor the cellular communication system of FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a third operating environment forthe cellular communication system of FIG. 1 .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Cellular communication systems assign a number of preambles, in somearchitectures a root sequence index (RSI) that is used in establishingcommunication between a mobile device or user equipment (UE) and anearby cell site. An individual cell site may have assigned a set of 64preambles that are utilized by user equipment (UE) to select a randomaccess channel for that cell site. A UE uses the random access channel(RACH) to contact a cell site to begin initial communication between theUE and the cell site. The cell site also referred to as a base stationwill then assign the UE to a data channel for actual voice or datacommunication between the UE and the site.

As one familiar with cellular systems may recall, each cell siteoverlaps with another cell site so that UE traveling through a regionmay transfer from one cell to the next in a seamless manner. It followsthen, that is adjacent cell sites have the same preambles, a UE may endup selecting a random access channel common to overlapping cell sitesresulting in more than one cell site thinking it has control of futurecommunication with that UE. This dual control may eventually cause anerror as terrestrial lines and other control mechanisms are duplicatedfor the UE. In most cases, the call is dropped. This situation isreferred to as an RSI collision.

System engineers go to great lengths to ensure that adjacent cell sitesto do not duplicate these preamble values. (For the purpose of thisdisclosure, preamble values, RSI, or other architecture-specific namesfor these values will be referred to as channel access values.) In olderarchitectures, a cell site may cover a 10 km area, depending ongeography, sometimes as much as 20 km. However, as the number of cellsites increase to accommodate more user equipment, the overlap betweencell sites and the number of cells that overlap a given site may alsoincrease. This may be exaggerated in new 5G systems where cell sites maybe designed to cover 1 km or even less. Correspondingly, user equipmentat its highest power level may be able to access a significantly highernumber of cell sites than before. To complicate matters further, currentcellular system architectures have a limited number of channel accessvalues so that ensuring that each site has channel access values thatare not duplicated in adjacent/overlapping cells can become problematic.

The current state of the art requires that system engineers evaluatemyriads of historical data such as several days' worth of keyperformance indicators (KPIs) such as random access setup success rate,call setup success rate, evolved radio access bearer drop rate, orintra-LTE handover success rate, among others. These KPIs are then usedto assign relatively static channel access values to each cell site.These channel access values may be in use for up to several days or morebefore the KPIs are manually re-evaluated and new values assigned.

However, there are several real time situations that may rapidly affectKPIs for a coverage area. For example, a traffic jam or live event maycause a concentration of UEs in a particular area so that the closestcell sites are overwhelmed and UEs increase their power to reach moredistant cell sites. Similarly, a cell site may experience a failure sothat UEs are forced to search farther for coverage. As the UEs rangeincrease, the number of sites that are now “adjacent” may increasedramatically so that errors due to duplicate channel access valuesbecome more common. Similarly, as new cell sites are installed andbrought online, adjacencies must also be re-evaluated to allow the newsite to avoid duplication of channel access values. Current systems haveno mechanism for identifying and updating channel access values for anyof these situations.

A system and method in accordance with the current disclosure allowsreal time evaluation of adjacencies not by using historical KPIs, butrather by enlisting user equipment in an area to build a real timecoverage “map” of a region. Signals from all or a significant number ofuser devices may be used to determine adjacencies and to automaticallyrecalculate channel access values for a region, as is discussed anddescribed in more detail below. This real time mapping allows for animmediate reaction to the situations described above including trafficjams, large events, new sites, and site outages.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a cellular communication system100 in accordance with the current disclosure. In the greatly simplifiedillustration of FIG. 1 , a radio access network (RAN) 102 may be coupledto a core network 132 via one or more communication links that are wellknown in Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems specifically and 3GPPstandards-based systems in general. Because the current disclosure isfocused around the RAN 102, this portion is shown in more detail. Inthis simplified and exemplary illustration, a plurality of basestations, also known as cell sites or eNodeB (or eNB) may include basestations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126. Certain grouping of base stationsin a market may be connected, in the LTE example, by an X2 interface.The base stations support communication with a plurality of userequipment devices (UEs) 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114. An Operations andMaintenance Center (OMC) 128 may communicate with the base stations inconjunction with the core network 132 to manage both management of theplurality of UEs (registration, handoffs, etc.) and user data (voice anddata communication).

A controller 130 may be coupled to the OMC 128. The controller 130 maycoordinate the polling and reconciliation of return signals from UEsused to generate the real time coverage map or reception patterns aswell as selection of channel access values for the base stations. Thefunctions of the controller 130 are discussed in more detail below. Inan embodiment, the functions of the controller 130 may be layered ontoan eNodeb or other base station, as shown in dashed lines in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a simplified and exemplary controller 130.The controller may include a processor 140 and a time base 142 used forsignaling coordination. The controller 130 may also include a memory 144storing, among other things, data and executable modules used inevaluating and assigning RSI or other channel assignment values. Channelaccess data and code 146 may include a tone assignment module 148, acoverage assessment module 150, and a channel access code assignmentdata 152.

The tone assignment module 148 may use current information from the basestations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126 to determine which UEs areavailable in the coverage area of interest and assign unique tones foreach UE of interest. That is, while in some embodiments, every UE thecoverage area may participate in the mapping exercise, in otherembodiments, only a subset of all the devices may be used. For example,UEs may be selected by type so that only smart phones are used. Inanother example, UEs that have been involved in a handoff between sitesin a recent time period may be selected. In yet another example, a capmay be put on the number of UEs selected for a given base station sothat the base station isn't overwhelmed with tones when the responsesignals are sent. The tone assignment module 148 may then send a UEidentifier, a tone value, and optionally, a time and a power level, torespective base stations currently in contact with the specified UEs.(While the term ‘tone’ is used throughout this document, the term inthis field of art refers to a digital code and would not normally referto an analog signal, although in some embodiments this may be possible.)The time may specify a specific time or time range over which each UE isto broadcast its respective unique tone. The power level may specify atwhich power level the UE is to broadcast the tone. In an example, thepower level may be specified as the last power level used by the UE. Inanother example, the power level may be specified as the maximum powerlevel available. Of course, other power levels can be specified based onconditions and the goals of the survey process.

The generation of unique tones or digital codes may be accomplished, inone embodiment, using a random number generator. In another embodiment,an algorithm may generate tones in a manner to maximize the distancebetween tones given the quantity of tones to be generated. For example,algorithms exist that create a desired Hamming distance between codes.

The coverage assessment module 150 may receive tone values, UEidentifiers, and base station identifiers for all tones received at eachof the base stations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126. The module 150 maybuild a table of what tones were received at what base stations. Whenone tone is received at two or more base stations, the inference can bemade that those base stations are providing overlapping coverage to theUE or UEs from which the tone or tones are received. This objectivesurvey of overlapping coverages is accurate to the time at which thetones are received and includes dynamic changes such as crowds, siteoutages, and new sites.

The channel access code assignment module 152 may use the results of thecoverage survey to build a table of channel assignments for each basestation 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126 so that known overlapping basestations are not given duplicate channel assignment values. Any ofseveral algorithms may be used in this process, such as those used incolor assignments for maps.

The controller 130 may also include a network interface 154 forcommunication with, among other system entities, the plurality of basestations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126. In some embodiments, thecontroller 130 may include an operator interface 156 that allows anoperator to locally set and monitor the survey and assignment processes.In other embodiments, the controller 130 may be operated remotely fromanother control environment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a simplified and exemplary base station 120that may be typical of any of the plurality of base stations 116, 118,120, 122, 124, 126 used in the illustrated embodiments. The base station120 may include a processor 160 and memory 162 that stores bothexecutable instructions and data. Among the information stored in thememory 162 may be a memory 164 storing code and data related to channelaccess values relevant to the current disclosure. Channel access values166 may be those values currently in use by the base station. Thesevalues, such as RSI values may be transmitted to UE as they becomeaffiliated with the base station via, for example, a system informationblock (SIB) or more specifically a SIB2 block.

The memory 164 may also store assigned tone values 168. These are tonesreceived from the controller 130 that are to be transmitted to all orselected of the UEs currently in communication with the base station120. The tones are unique to each UE and are broadcast by each UE whenthe coverage survey is initiated.

After the UEs each broadcast their respective tones, each base station116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126 will receive tones from as many UEs as arein broadcast range of that UE. The data for tones received at aparticular base station, such as base station 120 may be stored in thememory 162. Received tone data 170 may include the tone value and/or theUE identifier, such as IMEI, as well as a signal strength indicator. Insome embodiments, location data about the UE may also be stored withreceived tone data. The location data may be received from the UEitself, such as a GPS coordinate, or may be generated by the networkinfrastructure using, for example, signal strength or triangulation.

A time base 172 may be used for synchronization of network events, suchas cell-to-cell handoffs. The time base 172 may also be used forcoordinating and recording UE tone broadcasts for use in generating thesystem coverage map or system reception pattern. A network interface 174may support data communications with the controller 130 as well as X2interface communication between base stations and system managementmessages as defined by relevant standards.

The base station 120 may include a transceiver 176 or in someembodiments, multiple transceivers. The transceiver 176 may include atleast one receiver 178 and at least one transmitter 180. The transceiver176 is used for wireless communication with one or more UEs 114. Thetransceiver 176 and its associated antennas may be capable ofsophisticated functions including beam forming that allows antenna gainto be steered toward a particular UE.

An exemplary and representative user equipment device (UE) 104 may bedepicted in the block diagram of FIG. 4 . The UE 104 may include aprocessor 190 and memory 192 that stores executable code and data. Thememory 192 may particularly include channel access memory 194 that mayinclude code and data related to the UE's participation in generating areal time system reception pattern or coverage map. These data mayinclude a channel access value memory 196 and a tone memory 198. Thechannel access memory 196 may include RSI or similar values that aredownloaded from a base station providing current coverage, for example,base station 120 and used in selection of a random access channel. Thetone memory 198 may store a tone value assigned by the controller 130and received from the current base station. The assigned tone value, asdiscussed above, may be unique for this UE among all the UEs in thecoverage area, or at least unique among those participating in thecoverage map/reception pattern. The tone memory 198 may also store otherinformation relevant or useful in generating the coverage map. Forexample, the tone memory 198 may include a time at which to broadcastthe tone. The time may be the same across all UEs 104, 106, 108, 110,112, 114 or each UE may be assigned a separate time with a slight offsetfrom other UEs to accommodate the reception of the tones are the variousbase stations. The tone memory 198 may also in a power lever settingwhich the UE is to use for broadcasting its tone. The power level may bebased on current power level settings maintained by the base stations ormay be selected using a heuristic. In an embodiment, the tone may berebroadcast at successively increasing or decreasing power levels untila metric is reached. For example, the controller 130 may designate a lowpower level to begin and increase the power level until responses arerecorded for each mobile unit from which a response was expected or atleast a statistically significant portion of the available UEs.

The UE 104 may also include a time base 200 used, in part, forsynchronizing activities such as base station handoffs, but may also beused in conjunction with a specified time in the tone memory 198 to seta time for broadcasting the tone. The UE 104 may also include a userinterface 202 as is known in the art and that may include a touchscreen,display, and buttons (not depicted).

The UE 104 may also include a transceiver 204 used for communicationwith the current base station and may include a receiver 206 andtransmitter 208. The UE 104 may also include other wirelesscommunication devices (not depicted) such as, but not limited to, an802.11 (WiFi) radio, Bluetooth radio, near-field communication (NFC)radio, or even an optical transmitter.

Before discussing the flowchart of FIG. 5 , a brief explanation of thephysical and logical environment for the exemplary system of FIG. 1 isdiscussed and described in FIGS. 6-8 . Of course, the illustrations ofFIGS. 1, 6, 7, and 8 are greatly simplified for the sake of illustrationas well as simplification of the channel access values to three alphacharacters. In a particular cellular system market there may be over1000 base stations with an average of three sectors per base station.Each base station (eNodeB) may have up to 20 neighbors. In a perfectlyconfigured system, each sector of each base station will have anon-overlapping RSI values. As currently defined, root sequence indexesmay built from a table with 838 bit Zadoff-Chu sequences having knownphase differences between symbols. Random channel selection by the UEmay use a configuration index parameter found in a particular frame andsub-frame of a SIB2 packet to determine a cyclic shift to apply to theRSI. In general, the system is complex, there are a limited number ofRSI (channel access) values, and these values must be reused in acellular system market. Therefore, the simplifications made in the ofexemplary systems discussed here are made for the sake of illustrationof the disclosed concepts without clouding by extraordinary systemdetail. A person of ordinary skill in current cellular systemarchitectures will readily understand the concepts and applicationsdisclosed herein and their application to channel access valueassignment.

Referring to FIG. 6 , each base station may provide radio coverage foran individual coverage area associated with that base station. As isknown, each coverage area may include an overlapping region with one ormore adjacent base stations so that UEs traversing a region may transfera call or data session from one base station to another as a UE movesfrom one coverage area to the next. Each base station is shown in FIG. 6with a respective coverage area an exemplary channel access value set.For example, base station 120 has channel access value set 300 (A, B,and C) while base station 118 is illustrated with channel access valueset 302 (D, E, F). It is important that these two overlapping coverageareas do not share channel access values because, as discussed above,confusion between which base station is actually managing a particularUE, such as UE 114 in this case, can cause system errors and droppedcalls. Hilly terrain between base stations 116 and 120 allow, in somecircumstances, channel access values to be reused between these twosites.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate system changes that may cause adjacencies tochange and which in a system practicing the current state of the artwill create system errors until manually evaluated and correspondingchannel access values are reassigned.

FIG. 7 illustrates a scenario where base station 116 goes offline. Inthis case, compared to that of FIG. 6 , three UEs, 104, 106, and 110 mayneed to attach to new base stations to get into coverage. This may beaccomplished through increasing their transmit power to span a greaterdistance. For this example, UE 106 may now be in range of four basestations where overlapping cover did not necessarily occur before. Asystem in accordance with the current disclosure can discover that aconfiguration change may be required through several indicators,including but not limited to, observing that base station 116 is down,an increase in system errors, or simply that routine coverage polling isperformed on a regular basis, such as every five minutes.

The controller 130 may assign tones to the existing UEs and cause theUEs to broadcast their tones immediately or at a specified time and/orat a specified power level, as discussed above. Each base station 118,120, 122, 124, 126 may report the tones and/or UE identifier of all UEsfrom which a tone is received. While in some embodiments the controller130 may build an actual coverage map showing base station signal ranges,in other embodiments it may be enough to simply note which base stationsare now experiencing adjacencies via receiving tones from one or more ofthe same UEs. Once the adjacencies are determined, more or less in realtime from when the UE signals are broadcast, the controller 130 mayalgorithmically reassign channel access values to base stations asneeded. In the example shown in FIG. 7 base stations 120, 118 and 124 tonot require reassignment, while base station 122 receives a new channelaccess value set 304 (G, H, I) and base station 126 is assigned channelaccess value set 306 (J, K, L).

FIG. 8 illustrates another exemplary situation involving real timechannel reassignment. In this illustration, hikers represented by UE 134on the mountain range that separates base station 116 from base station120 now create an environment where one mobile device (or more) maycreate an adjacency between the two cell sites, 116 and 120. Causing theUEs to broadcast unique tones will allow the controller 130 to determinethat the two usually separate sites are now experiencing an adjacency.The controller 130 may then change the channel access values for basestation 116 to set 304 (G, H, I). These examples in FIGS. 7 and 8illustrate but two of many different scenarios where real time pollingof UEs may allow the controller 130 to generate a fresh coverage map orreception pattern of an area so that channel access values may assignedin real time to respond to changes in condition.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 220 of operating a cellularcommunication system. At block 222, a plurality of base stations 116,118, 120, 122, 124, 126 may be provided. A controller 130 may be coupledeach of the base stations.

At block 224, the controller 130 may assign a tone or code to each userequipment device (UE) 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114 in a communicationregion of interest, such as an area for which radio coverage is providedby the plurality of base stations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126. The tonevalue may be unique to each UE.

At block 226, optionally, the controller 130 may add a power level andtime may also be added to the unique tones for each UE. Each of theplurality of base stations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126 may receive,from the controller 130, one or more tone values and optionally timeand/or power levels at block 228. In an embodiment, the controller 130may send the tone values and optional data only to the base station thatis current in communication with a particular UE 104. In anotherembodiment, each base station may receive the tone and optional data forall UEs in the coverage area. The base station 116 may then determinewhich UEs it should send the tone values to. The latter scenarioincreases the data traffic and local processing but may help ensure thatall desired UEs receive the tone and optional data even when a handoffto another cell has just occurred or is imminent.

At block 230, the UEs may broadcast their respective unique tone valueswhich may be collected by one or more base stations 116, 118, 120, 122,124, 126 whether that base station is current controlling a given UE ornot. That is, the tone from one UE may be received by multiple basestations. All base stations may record the signal strength of the toneas well as the tone, a tone identifier and/or an identifier of the UEitself. This information may be forwarded to the controller 130.

The controller 130, at block 232, may develop a coverage map or overlaplist for the plurality of base stations 116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126based on which base stations receive tones from the same UE.Specifically, if two or more base stations receive a tone from the sameUE, it can be assumed that these base stations are providing overlappingcoverage. Once the coverage/overlaps are determined, the controller maycalculate, at block 234, channel access values for each base stationthat ensure that overlapping base stations do not use the same values.These values may be forwarded to each base station 116, 118, 120, 122,124, 126.

At block 236, the respective channel access values may be distributed bya base station to UEs that are attempting to register with that basestation according to the system protocol, for example, via SIB2messages.

At least one technical effect is the ability to use signals transmittedby user devices to build a real time coverage map or reception patternfor an installation of base stations in a cellular environment. Thisreal time data reflects current system conditions by leveraging userdevices to build signal strength and coverage in contrast to prior artsystems that rely on historical key performance indicators (KPIs) ofsystem performance taken at the base stations and controllers tooptimize the system for configurations that may not even exist anymore.

The current system and method benefit both users and system operators byallowing real time data to be collected, analyzed and acted on asconditions change, not simply when system engineers have time to analyzeperformance data. This data that reflects was user equipment is actuallyexperiencing for development of critical system settings increasessystem reliability for mobile device users and reduces costs andcustomer service issues for operators.

The figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesdescribed herein.

Upon reading this disclosure, those of skill in the art will appreciatestill additional alternative structural and functional designs for thesystems and methods described herein through the disclosed principlesherein. Thus, while particular embodiments and applications have beenillustrated and described, it is to be understood that the disclosedembodiments are not limited to the precise construction and componentsdisclosed herein. Various modifications, changes and variations, whichwill be apparent to those skilled in the art, may be made in thearrangement, operation and details of the systems and methods disclosedherein without departing from the spirit and scope defined in anyappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cellular communication system comprising: aplurality of base stations, the plurality of base stations defining acoverage area and including: at least one corresponding base stationreceiver; a plurality of user equipment devices (UEs), each of theplurality of UEs including: a transceiver in data communication with atleast one of the plurality of base stations; a memory storing valuesreceived via the transceiver from at least one base station, the valuesincluding a tone descriptor and a time; a controller communicativelycoupled to each of the plurality of base stations in the coverage area,the controller including executable instructions that cause thecontroller to: calculate a unique tone value for at least some of theplurality of UEs; and cause each unique tone to be transmitted to itscorresponding UE via the plurality of base stations; cause each of thesome of the plurality of UEs to broadcast its unique tone at a specifiedtime and power level; collect data from each of the plurality of basestations corresponding to receipt of the broadcast of the unique tones,the data including: an identity of each UE from which a correspondingunique tone was received; an identity of one or more base stationsreceiving the corresponding unique tone; a received power level of eachunique tone at each of the one or more base stations receiving thecorresponding unique tone; generate a reception pattern of the coveragearea; and update channel access values for each of the plurality of basestations according to the generated reception pattern.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the specified time is the same for each of the UEs. 3.The system of claim 1, wherein the specified time is unique to each UE.4. The system of claim 1, wherein the unique tone is a digital code. 5.A cellular communication apparatus comprising: a plurality of basestations, the plurality of base stations defining a coverage area andincluding: at least one corresponding base station receiver; a pluralityof user equipment devices (UEs), each of the plurality of UEs including:a transceiver in data communication with at least one of the pluralityof base stations; a memory storing values received via the transceiverfrom at least one base station, the values including a tone descriptorand a time; a controller communicatively coupled to each of theplurality of base stations in the coverage area, the controllerincluding executable instructions that cause the controller to:calculate a unique tone value for at least some of the plurality of UEs;and cause each unique tone to be transmitted to its corresponding UE viathe plurality of base stations; cause each of the some of the pluralityof UEs to broadcast its unique tone at a specified time and power level;collect data from each of the plurality of base stations correspondingto receipt of the broadcast of the unique tones, the data including: anidentity of each UE from which a corresponding unique tone was received;an identity of one or more base stations receiving the correspondingunique tone; a received power level of each unique tone at each of theone or more base stations receiving the corresponding unique tone;generate a reception pattern of the coverage area; and update channelaccess values for each of the plurality of base stations according tothe generated reception pattern.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, whereinthe specified time is the same for each of the UEs.
 7. The apparatus ofclaim 5, wherein the specified time is unique to each UE.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 5, wherein the unique tone is a digital code.
 9. Acellular communication server system comprising: a plurality of basestations, the plurality of base stations defining a coverage area andincluding: at least one corresponding base station receiver; a pluralityof user equipment devices (UEs), each of the plurality of UEs including:a transceiver in data communication with at least one of the pluralityof base stations; a memory storing values received via the transceiverfrom at least one base station, the values including a tone descriptorand a time; a controller communicatively coupled to each of theplurality of base stations in the coverage area, the controllerincluding executable instructions that cause the controller to:calculate a unique tone value for at least some of the plurality of UEs;and cause each unique tone to be transmitted to its corresponding UE viathe plurality of base stations; cause each of the some of the pluralityof UEs to broadcast its unique tone at a specified time and power level;collect data from each of the plurality of base stations correspondingto receipt of the broadcast of the unique tones, the data including: anidentity of each UE from which a corresponding unique tone was received;an identity of one or more base stations receiving the correspondingunique tone; a received power level of each unique tone at each of theone or more base stations receiving the corresponding unique tone;generate a reception pattern of the coverage area; and update channelaccess values for each of the plurality of base stations according tothe generated reception pattern.
 10. The server system of claim 9,wherein the specified time is the same for each of the UEs.
 11. Theserver system of claim 9, wherein the specified time is unique to eachUE.
 12. The server system of claim 9, wherein the unique tone is adigital code.